According to the hacktivist collective, the files provide, for the first time, “a detailed map” on the British intelligence services’ clandestine operations in Syria to fund, arm and provide a sanitized, publicly acceptable media voice to an array of opposition militants and jihadists seeking to topple the Assad government. Anonymous, the international hacking group behind the 2018 [...]

On Tuesday, it was reported that Turkey had deployed its S-400 air defense systems to the northern city of Samsun near the Black Sea, probably for testing, with Ankara making no official statement on the matter. The US State Department has expressed alarm over reports about possible tests by Turkey of its Russian-made S-400 missile systems. [...]

Prime Minister Designate Mustapha Adib announced that he would be stepping down on Saturday, saying Lebanon’s political factions “failed to refuse to politicize the process of forming a government.” Adib was appointed in August, after Prime Minister Hassan Diab resigned in the turmoil following the Beirut explosion, which killed nearly 200 people. Prime Minister designate Adib’s s [...]

A draft of an economic and security deal between the People's Republic of China and the Islamic Republic of Iran previously leaked by The New York Times is continuing to reverberate in the international media. Iranian political analyst Mahan Abedin has explained the fuss over the accords and shed light on Iran's strategic shift towards the East. The 18-page Persian-language document envis [...]

Aleksandar Vucic's reaction to Donald Trump's announcement that Belgrade will move its Israeli embassy to Jerusalem next July made some people wonder if the news had come as a surprise to the Serbian leader. Vucic visited Washington this week to sign a US-brokered deal with Avdullah Hoti, prime minister of the breakaway Serbian region of Kosovo. The agreement was touted as a great diplomatic succe [...]

Israeli authorities escalated demolitions in occupied East Jerusalem in August, knocking 51 Palestinian buildings and displacing 85 people, many of whom were children, a Palestinian rights group said. The demolition of homes, which Israel says were built without proper permits, have been conducted in an "unprecedented manner" in the past month, Palestinian rights group, Wadi Hilweh Information [...]

The US assassination of top Iranian general Qasem Soleimani in early January exacerbated the already tense relations between Tehran and Washington in place since the Trump administration's unilateral withdrawal from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal in 2018. Deputy director-general of the Russian research centre Rezonans Alexander Stuchilin has argued that a radar system produced by his company [...]

During a recent meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi US President Donald Trump suggested that most American servicemen will be "leaving [the country] shortly" but failed to give a definitive timeline. Several groups within Iraq's Popular Mobilisation Units (PMU) have threatened to attack US positions in the country should its leadership not negotiate a withdrawal of its tr [...]

On 4 August, a massive explosion took place in Beirut, killing over 200 people and decimating the city's infrastructure. The massive blast was caused by improper storage of explosive ammonium nitrate in the Beirut port. Sputnik is live from Beirut as the Lebanese capital, devastated by an explosion in early August, has re-imposed a lockdown amid a surge in COVID-19 cases. The new measu [...]

The US ambassador to the United Nations has described the lack of support from Washington’s allies in Europe as “disappointing,” after the US attempted to restore UN sanctions against Tehran. “This matter is so important that we cannot wait until the arms embargo [against Iran] runs out on October 18,” Kelly Craft, US envoy to the UN, told German daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung in an intervi [...]

Lebanon's government stepped down on Monday night in the aftermath of a deadly blast that shattered the country's capital on 4 August and claimed the lives of more than 200 people. International observers have discussed whether the Diab cabinet’s resignation will help fix the situation and what forces could take the reins. The tragedy reignited nationwide anti-government protests, with [...]

The explosion that devastated Beirut has been linked to a mishandled ammonium nitrate cargo confiscated from a foreign ship. Now a former crew member tells RT the vessel, owned by a dodgy businessman, was a disaster in the making. Some 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate – a highly explosive fertilizer – went up in a terrifying blast in Beirut on Tuesday, Lebanese officials have said. [...]

Videos obtained by RT show areas around Beirut’s port reduced to rubble and ruins after explosions near the city’s docks destroyed nearby buildings and blew out windows more than 10 kilometers away. Free-lance journalist Owen Holdaway sent videos from Beirut Thursday evening showing the aftermath of the blasts. "A large part of the area has been completely devastated," Holdaway said in a video [...]

Over the past three years, authorities in Syria have seized enough terrorist weapons, ammunition, communications equipment and medical supplies to field a small army. Many of the arms were covertly delivered to the country from abroad, and paid for by powers seeking the illegal armed overthrow of Syria’s government. Local authorities found another major stock of arms and ammunition, inc [...]

With the US economy reeling from the effects of the coronavirus pandemic, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee agreed to give Israel a minimum of $3.8 billion in military aid per year. A full vote on the gift is expected soon. The US unemployment rate now stands at 14.7 percent, the worst figure since records began. Nearly 39 million Americans have lost their jobs since the coronavirus reached U [...]

Media outlets have omitted aspects about the US assassination of Iranian commander Qassem Soleimani that don’t fit Washington’s narrative, comedian Lee Camp has argued. He’s debunked the Pentagon spin so you don’t have to. The host of Redacted Tonight has listed six things about the highly controversial killing that the media has either ignored completely or under-reported, including the n [...]

It’s believed that a US-Iran war would disrupt the flow of Middle Eastern oil and, as such, should be avoided at all costs. With US oil futures trading in the negative, has the risk of such a war suddenly become attractive? Last week, nearly a dozen Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy (IRGCN) vessels harassed a formation of US Navy and Coast Guard ships operating in international wate [...]

In January 2020 members of the Iraqi parliament said the country was mulling the purchase of advanced Russian S-400 missile systems amid concerns that Washington might stop supporting Iraq and providing it with modern air defence armaments. The Parliamentary Security and Defence Committee of Iraq submitted a detailed study requesting the purchase of Russian long-range, surface-to-air S-400 missile [...]

An earlier ABC News report stated that US intelligence officials had warned the military and White House about the spread of a coronavirus outbreak in China as far back as late November 2019, with the Pentagon denying the "product/assessment" existed. US intelligence agencies warned Israel of the threat of a coronavirus outbreak in China as far back as in November 2019, Israeli Channel 12 [...]

Having bragged repeatedly of America’s energy independence, President Trump must confront the harsh realities of a global oil market no longer able to sustain inefficient US oil producers as he prepares to negotiate with the G20. The global economy struggles to adapt to the one-two punch of reduced oil demand brought on by the coronavirus pandemic and the Russian-Saudi Arabian price war, which h [...]

Saudi Arabia, a major strategic ally of the US, has been at the centre of an oil output cut dispute with Russia that unleashed a price war and sent already-volatile crude prices to their 18-year lows. American senators from oil-producing states reproached the Saudi ambassador in a heated phone call and threatened to rethink diplomatic relations with the kingdom, according to their accounts of the [...]

The OPCW has issued its first report explicitly blaming Syria’s government for chemical attacks on civilians, pointing to three incidents in 2017 and saying there’re “reasonable grounds” to believe the air force was responsible. “Attacks of such a strategic nature would have only taken place on the basis of orders from the higher authorities of the Syrian Arab Republic military command,� [...]